Re: [RFC] 64 bit platform improvements for string length and integer

Hi Yasuo, On Tue, 2014-01-14 at 06:57 +0900, Yasuo Ohgaki wrote: > Hi Anatol, > > On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Anatol Belski <ab@php.net> wrote: > > > https://wiki.php.net/rfc/size_t_and_int64 > > > > The discussion time has come. The work on the feature branch continues. > > The current patch is stable enough to be discussed. > > > I haven't dive into details of this improvement, so > I'm assuming the improvement is only for 64bit platforms from the title. > > There are number of subsystems that supports 64bit int. e.g. file system, > PostgreSQL large object, time, etc. It's nicer if 64bit int is supported on > 32bit platforms. > > What's the reason not to introduce larger int for 32bit platforms? > Too much performance impact? > thanks for the interest on this. Such an idea existed at the start among others, as well as introducing a new zval member for 'int64' besides 'long'. The reasons for not doing it (now), also from the todays point of view: - much higher patch complexity - with more complexity the risk of not finishing the patch grows - worse compatibility with libraries - worse compatibility with existing extensions - 64 bit processors are widely available - well, the slowliness you mention, whereby i've no benchmarks at hand I would describe the current patch already as a quantum jump for PHP, whereby small steps are much safer. Having placeholders instead of fixed types is a good base to do 64 bit int available on 32 bit platform. However I guess bringing it up will take not less amount of woman/hours, if not more. One can see the current state as an intermediate goal, where it leads is another question. What comes with the patch now: - 64 bit int support across windows/linux - 64 bit file operations across windows/linux - size_t support for string length, that means string length can be handled with userspace integers - open perspectives for things like you mention I've read your Postgres approach and that's doable even currently inside 32 bit, too. There is such functionality here and there, like ext/date. Regards Anatol